Deep-sea animals, stinging jellies, and the people I'd to throw them at

Some pictures of funky deep-sea creatures to help pass the time, including one of a siphonophore called physonect -- siphonophores are colonial jellies, where different segments of the 'body' are actually individual animals, who develop specialized bodies that reflect the role they play in the colony -- stinging tentacles, gas-filled float, etc. Portuguese men-of-war belong to this group; it's my interpretation that siphonophores tend to have more potent stings than their scyphozoan (true jellyfish) cousins, but I'm only familiar with a few species, so I very well could be wrong about that.

You could compare them to colonial insects like bees and ants, where each individual has a specific job, and the morphology of, say, a soldier will be very different than that of a queen -- sometimes so radically different, you would expect them to be of different species if you didn't know any better. The comparison is even closer with some army ants that create bivouacs, living tents of ants grappling together, to protect the colony. (Of course, there's no relation at all between insects and siphonophores.)

Also, I've been getting some interesting comments lately. If you see a comment from Anonymous, saying 'Great site, very informative' or some such nonsense, followed with a >> that's been linked to some random gambling site, please don't click on them. As pleased as I am that these random gambling sites are taking a greater interest in the invertebrates I've been talking about lately, I must allow for the possibility that they are, in fact, mere spammers seeking some inspiration from the higher orders of life. As I've been talking mostly about arthropods the past few weeks, this I feel would be beyond their modest hopes, and I will henceforth attempt to find less daunting forms of life for them to aspire to, perhaps some of the more primitive polychaetes. But in the meantime, I must beg you not to encourage their tragicly misguided aspirations, and to not click on their links.